29 January 2025 – In January 2025, Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe together with the consortium of other 15 partners (CSOs and research institutions), reached the conclusion of the Horizon 2020 REAL DEAL (Reshaping European Advances towards green Leadership Through Deliberative Approaches and Learning) Project. In the aftermath of the adoption of the European Green Deal (EGD), the project was tasked to produce case study-based recommendations that would inform future pathways and mechanisms for citizen engagement and meaningful contribution to policy-making processes related to the implementation of EU’s green agenda and related social justice policies.
In the timeframe of the project duration over the past 3 years, the project partners tested and evaluated a range of both digital and in-person innovations in deliberative tools, formats and processes throughout 13 countries in the EU and its neighbourhood (North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine). The deliberations in the test cases were related to a variety of topics relevant for the EGD and involved representative samples of citizens from all cross-sections of society with a specific focus on marginalised and vulnerable groups, gender equality and youth.
We outline the learnings from the test cases in a series of three policy briefs, linking each of them respectively to EU level, national level and local processes.
This policy brief identifies prospects and recommendations for enhancing the involvement of citizens and civil society in complex policy issues and processes such as the European Semester process and the benefits thereof. The insights presented stem from test cases and related activities conducted in Denmark and Italy and aim to provide an added value through establishing a link between EU level processes and their contextualization on a national level. The learnings underpin the usefulness of deliberative formats and methods in economic governance, while pointing to the need for further explorations and establishment of a process structure that would optimise their potential.
Brief 2: Citizen Engagement in Environmental Policy: Policy Recommendations from EU-wide citizens’ forums
This policy brief provides an in-depth look at learnings from three distinct European Citizens’ Forum in Brussels; the methodologies, engagement strategies, and outcomes of these forums, and offers recommendations for optimizing future initiatives to strengthen democratic processes in EU policy-making and enhance the effectiveness of citizen engagement strategies across EU institutions.
This policy brief outlines the distinctive approaches to environmental engagement in Zaragoza and Jérica, Spain, emphasizing the successful involvement of urban and rural communities. It further provides a comparative analysis of these strategies and exemplifies scalability possibilities of deliberative approaches in other regions and contexts aiming to implement similar initiatives.
As each of these policy briefs contains detailed recommendations and pathways forward on enabling citizen participation, we invite CAN Europe members, as well as broader civil society actors and interested citizens to get acquainted with and use these learnings as:
a) guidance upon which to build on when replicating deliberative initiatives and participatory practices across diverse governance contexts;
b) advocacy efforts for integration of citizen participation mechanisms in both EU and national level policy-making processes.
For more information please visit the REAL DEAL website: realdeal.eu
Contact: Kristina Naunova, Network Development and Project Coordinator at CAN Europe
